Sunday, December 27, 2009

Motivational Quote

When I was still posting over at The Aspiring Author blog, I did my best to post weekly motivational quotes that I felt would be helpful to writers. Now that I have incorporated that blog into this one, I will continue posting motivational quotes that I find.

I came across this one today and it made me stop and think about its meaning:

"Yesterday's failures are today's seeds that must be diligently planted to be able to abundantly harvest tomorrow's successes." - Author Unknown

So often we can let failures interfere with our progress. Instead of using failures as a way to move us toward success, we begin to doubt ourselves; we wonder if we truly have what it takes to be writers. As I read and reread this quote, it helps me to realize how important learning from our failures can be. They don't have to be big holes that we fall into and have no idea how to extract ourselves from; instead our failures can be what guides us to success. Taking what we learn from our failures and applying it to future actions keeps us focused on our writing goals. Maintaining our focus helps us to persevere even when we feel like giving up.

Thomas Edison did not allow failure to stop him. In fact, he didn't believe in failure. Instead, he felt that he succeeded in proving what would not work, and that by eliminating what didn't work, he would find the way that did work.

The new year is often a time when we talk about setting writing goals. Can you dedicate yourself to not giving into failure this year? Will you see those failures as tiny seeds that will lead to a harvest of successes? Can you, like Edison, believe that you have not failed, but instead succeeded in finding ways that didn't work?